Alberta, long a primary driving force pushing Canada’s economy forward but reeling now from a precipitous drop in oil prices and the ill-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic appears headed to the highest unemployment rate of any Canadan province in the modern era.
The province has–for years–served as a magnet for people from across Canada unable to find work closer to home, a place where residents enjoyed the highest average salaries in the country, and a province whose oil riches have helped other provinces maintain their standards of living.
No more.
Premier Jason Kenney told an online energy conference on Tuesday he expects the Alberta unemployment rate to soon hit 25 per cent, meaning some 500,000 people will be out of work.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the province is headed for an unemployment rate of 25 per cent. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)
The CBC’s Tony Seskus writes that on a seasonally adjusted basis, the highest rate recorded by Statistics Canada since 1976 was in Newfoundland and Labrador, which hit 22.7 percent unemployment in September 1984.
Alberta’s highest unemployment rate to date was 12.4 per cent, also in September 1984.
Highest unemployment rates on record
Kenney said Alberta now faces the most challenging period for the province’s economy, in relative terms, since the Great Depression.
Alberta reported two deaths from the virus among 26 new cases on Tuesday and twenty-six people have now died in the province from COVID-19.
Dean Bennett of The Canadian Press reports that the province is working with two models: a probable and elevated scenario.
Kenney campaigned in last spring’s election on three words: jobs, economy and pipelines.(CBC)
Under the probable scenario, a peak number of infections is expected by mid-May, with as many as 800,000 infections by the end of summer and between 400 and 3,100 deaths.
Under the elevated scenario, infections would peak earlier, at the start of May, leading to as many as one million infections and between 500 and 6,600 deaths.
A CBC report last November warned of trouble ahead on the job front, even before the COVID-19 crisis, noting that since 2014, 53,200 jobs in the once-lucrative oil and gas sector had disappeared.
With files from CBC News (Tony Seskus, David Bell), The Canadian Press (Dean Bennett)
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